Home tours are an interesting concept – you pay a small fee to walk though a collection of other people’s homes. It’s like House Hunters with the pressure to actually buy a house. The Meridian Kessler Home Tour is features homes in the historic district of the same name. Most of the homes have been renovated and modernized over the years, making each one distinct. Honestly, it’s worth a visit to Indy just to go on this tour.

This year was a bit offbeat, with one of the homes being completely empty and mostly gutted (they intend to feature on the tour again when the home is complete) and another that was a music school, artists residence, and private residence in one.

They won’t let you take pictures, which is a bit strange considering hundreds of people will be walking through these homes. Because we have major renovations planned for our own home, it was helpful to see how other people dealt with renovation challenges. We could see some other finished basements and observe how they managed low ceiling heights, duct work, and other tricky situations.